Into Darkness

4

Quiet darkness was settling into the woods when Richard spotted Nyda on watch long before she spotted him and Vika. When she finally did see him, she ran out and whistled a birdcall he had taught the Mord-Sith to alert the others that they had returned.

Rikka then emerged from the thick underbrush behind him. He hadn’t spotted her. He was glad to see that they were using the tactic of positioning one person on watch so as to be spotted and distract anyone approaching. If it turned out to be a threat, the one still hidden could then take out that threat from behind. Even though he was glad to see them using their heads, he had more important things on his mind.

Richard and Vika were both exhausted from the long ride up the steep terrain, climbing the trail in the dark the entire night before, the hunt along the steep and difficult ground for the mother’s breath, the tense encounter with the mountain lion, and then the difficult journey back down the mountains to where they had left Kahlan, Shale, and the rest of the Mord-Sith.

As they galloped into camp, Richard leaped off his horse. Berdine ran in and took the reins of both horses as Vika jumped down and handed Richard the blanket with their precious cargo. Shale was adding a stick of wood in the fire when she saw them ride in.

She stood and then rushed to meet them, brushing crumbs of bark from her hands. “Do you have it?”

Richard flipped open the blanket to show her. “How is Kahlan?”

Shale gently lifted out all three plants, using it as an excuse to divert her gaze. She looked amazed that they had actually found some mother’s breath.

“Three! This is wonderful, and you managed to recover them with their taproots intact. I had dared not hope you would find even one. This is exactly what we need.”

“I asked how Kahlan was.”

Shale looked up from under her brow. “The Mother Confessor is asleep.”

Richard gently grabbed Shale’s upper arm. “I asked how she is.”

The sorceress considered the intensity in his eyes briefly before answering. “She was losing the babies and her life along with theirs. The only thing I could think to do until you returned with the mother’s breath was to use my gift to immerse her in a form of very deep sleep. I had to put her in that place between life and death. You called it the cusp. My hope is that inducing such a profound sleep will slow down all the functions in her body enough to keep her from miscarrying. It was the only way I could think of to save her and the twins. So far, she still has the babies and she is still breathing.”

“But she will be all right.” It came out more like a command than a question. He didn’t like to hear that the sorceress had pushed Kahlan to the cusp between life and death. He didn’t like it one bit. But he didn’t want to second-guess her decisions. He knew the extent of the emergency, and that Shale would do everything she could to save Kahlan. “Now that we have the mother’s breath, will she be all right?”

The sorceress hesitated. “I hope so. At least for now she and the twins are alive and together. With the mother’s breath we have a chance. Now, I must hurry and prepare the medicine she needs.”

“What can I do to help?” Richard asked as he followed close behind her as she hurried back to the fire.

Shale paused and considered a moment, looking toward the lean-to beyond a crackling fire before gazing at the three plants resting in her hand.

“I need to prepare the remedy, but that is going to take several hours. Since you were able to bring three plants, and considering the seriousness of the situation”—she handed Richard the one with the longest taproot—“maybe there is something you can do to help. Take this one, go to her, break off the bottom tip of the root, and then let the milky fluid drip into her mouth. She needs to swallow it. Do it only when you have it over her mouth so you don’t waste any. It is a very rare and precious substance.”

“If I’m going to let some of the milk drip into her mouth, why do you need to prepare a remedy?”

Shale didn’t shy away from his gaze. “Lord Rahl, please do as I ask, and hurry.”

Richard was concerned that she was deviating from the plan of preparing the plants first. He knew a great deal about plants and herbs, but he didn’t know anything about mother’s breath or how it needed to be prepared. He did know that there were plants that when prepared properly could heal. But he also knew that when raw and not properly prepared they could kill.

“Will it harm her to give her the raw milk of the plant? Are you sure you shouldn’t prepare it first?”

Shale touched her fingers to the hollow of her neck as she considered it a moment. It was apparently a question that worried her, too.

“To tell you the truth, I can’t be sure. I’ve never heard that mother’s breath is poisonous, but also, I’ve never heard of giving a miscarrying woman the milk of the plant raw, rather than in a prepared remedy. I do know that the healing power of the plant lies in the milk.” She held up a hand and rubbed her first two fingers together with her thumb. “It’s a sticky substance, much stickier than the milky sap in any other plant. I believe that sticky quality is what may be the key to how the plant helps stop a miscarriage.

“I was told by an herb woman I knew that she believed the sticky milk of the mother’s breath plant strengthens the bond the mother’s body has with the unborn babies, keeping them in her womb. But to be honest, I’ve never heard of the milk being given raw. My thought is that women are always given the prepared potion but that may be because living plants are never at hand, whereas the preparation can be made up ahead of time and kept in stock, sealed in jars, ready for when needed in an emergency.”

“Then to be safe, why not just wait until you can prepare the plants the way you were taught?”

Shale gave him a meaningful look. “Because it took you a long time to find the plant. Too long. I realize that’s not your fault, and it is remarkable that you were even able to find it at all, but as far as the life of the Mother Confessor is concerned, it took too long. That’s the reality.

“The only reason she hasn’t miscarried and she is still alive is because I was there right when it started and so I was able to put her into that deep state of sleep before it had advanced too far. Traditionally the remedy is prepared by an herb woman for those times when it is urgently needed. That is often later when a healer has been summoned, so much time would have already passed by the time any help reached the mother. My intention was to prepare the plant in that way. But it took you a long time to return. Too long.”

“But if you were to prepare it—”

“To be honest, Lord Rahl, even though she is in a deep sleep, I don’t think your wife can last long enough for me to prepare the plants. My hope is that the raw milk will stop the miscarriage and keep the three of them alive and together until the preparation is ready. For all I know, the raw milk might even work better and then the prepared potion wouldn’t even be needed.

“But what I can’t say is that it won’t do harm. In my judgment we have to chance it.”

“It’s a big chance,” he said.

“It is,” Shale agreed with a nod. “I leave the choice to you, then. You are her husband and would know best what her wishes would be. You decide for her. What would she want you to do?”

Richard didn’t have to think about it. “She would say that it’s the only chance for her and the babies, so we have no choice but to try it.”

Shale offered him a brief smile. “Hurry, then, and give it to her.”

Richard gripped the plant in his hand as he nodded. “How long will it take you to prepare the other two?”

She looked over at the fire. “To boil it down and prepare the remedy will take a few hours. I think you have made the right decision in the meantime. You must give her some of the raw milk now.”

Richard looked down at the plant she had handed him. “Could it hurt her? Could it hurt her if it’s raw, or hurt the babies?”

“I already told you that I just don’t know.” The sorceress glanced over the fire to the still Mother Confessor. “But I think that the problem may actually be if it works too well.”

Richard frowned. “What do you mean?”

Shale looked back at him. “I mean that it may bind the babies into her so well that it may prove difficult for her to give birth.”

“Well then, maybe—”

“Lord Rahl, there is no time. It is already long past when she should have been given the potion that I have yet to cook. By all rights, she shouldn’t even still be alive. I doubt she will be for much longer. If you have made your decision, then you must do it now or she will be lost.”

Richard let out a troubled sigh as he gently gripped the plant in his fist. He knew that there was really no choice. He just wished it were not a choice he had to make.

Shale put a hand on his forearm as if to steel him. “Hurry now. Go to her.”